Festivals

For four days every January, the small Dutch city of Groningen becomes the centre of the European music scene with Eurosonic – the festival that has its 33rd edition in 2019.

Eurosonic Noorderslag (ESNS) is like Europe’s version of SXSW, while still retaining the discovery vibe of the early days of the Austin festival. ESNS is Europe’s biggest showcase of rising acts – with festival bookers, labels, media and other industry figures bingeing on new bands by night and networking by day.

There is a heavy industry presence, but Eurosonic is by no means a chin-stroking music executive love-in – some 40,000 ‘real’ punters attend the festival every year, running between dozens of venues trying to catch the next big thing.

Here are seven reasons to visit Groningen for Eurosonic

Discover your new favourite band…Each country featured at Eurosonic sends its most promising acts to the showcase every January, so even if much of the programme is a mystery, you’re a dead cert to find a future favourite act. Also, Eurosonic gets the head start on all other festivals through the year, with many veterans saying half the summer line-ups start to take shape in Groningen in January – with bookers, managers and artists meeting up and hammering out deals. But even if you’re not an industry head, Eurosonic is a chance to see the festival headliners of the future in a club in the Netherlands, before they take it out to the fields. Hundreds of acts have used Eurosonic as a springboard to way bigger things, but a few standouts include The Libertines, Franz Ferdinand, Robyn, The xx, Calvin Harris, Stormzy and Dua Lipa.

The conference means it’s more than a series of gigs
As Europe’s most prestigious showcase festival, Eurosonic attracts the biggest industry names, from labels heads and agents to managers, festival bookers, media companies, marketing executives and PR firms. Over the four days at the Oosterport hub, delegates can attend talks, panel discussions, songwriting workshops and lectures on a huge range of topics. Topics up for discussion in 2019 include innovation in ticket technology, conservation in the culture industry, festival innovation, the future of social media and music magazines, game soundtracks and many more.

Key speakers this year include veteran manager Richard Jones, who has worked with Bjork, PJ Harvey, Spice Girls and Pixies, while the BBC’s Ben Chapman will present the UK broadcaster’s new integrated BBC Sounds media platform.

And even outside the official events, during the festival, every side room, table or edge of a couch has some hook-up going on between delegates.

The conference programme also includes the European Festival Awards — a chance to look back on the innovators who have helped shape the year in live music.

The range of venues is staggering…With hundreds of bands playing hundreds of gigs over four days, expect performances in a wide range of places, from historic venues to pop-up spaces. As well as iconic rock and pop venues like Vera, there’s been a chance in the past to watch intimate performances in tiny pubs, basement clubs, radio studios, grand theatres, pool halls, an outdoor market, conference halls and a 17th century church.

Groningen is a party city all year round – it just doubles down at Eurosonic…
Groningen is a student town, and over a quarter of its 200,000 citizens go to college. The average age for the whole city is 35, and you’re never more than a few steps away from a pub, venue or coffee shop, and there’s no official closing time. The Dutch will also party no matter the weather – On the second day of Eurosonic 2018, Dutch authorities issued a code red storm warning, with hundreds of flights cancelled and all public transport suspended. Still, venues were packed, and it was comically reassuring to see punters sprinting around in the hail, snow and wind trying to find underground venues on Google Maps.

The Noorderslag Dutch takeover…
Groningen’s huge conference centre De Oosterport acts as the festival hub, and for the first three days it’s a hive of networking, panel discussions, lectures, debates and industry meetings. However, on the Saturday, organisers decide there’s been enough talking and the industry heads are cleared out to make way for the festival-within-a-festival Noorderslag – an all-Dutch music showcase.

The spectacular event runs from the evening to the early hours, with a huge atrium stage and gigs happenings in 10 conference halls where deals have been sealed in the previous few days.

Explore a vibrant graphic art culture…One of the main festival hubs is Vera – Groningen’s most famous club, that has hosted iconic acts on the rise, such as Joy Division, Slayer, Nick Cave, the Cure and even U2. Vera also functions as a graphic design and art collective, with striking one-off gig posters in the windows and limited edition collector’s item posters hanging in the halls as a permanent exhibition. You can also marvel at thousands of flyers, stickers and comic book art plastered to the walls.

If this whets your visual art appetite, the GRID Grafisch museum is an amazing place for a time-out from the festival. GRID is a museum devoted to the history of graphic design, printing and bookbinding. It runs regular exhibitions, but as an added bonus the resident craftsman and historian Peter Meijer will give you a guided tour of the permanent collection of vintage printing machines.

Go crate-digging…
As a city with such a rich musical legacy, Groningen has an amazing selection of record shops to visit during some festival down-time. The White Stripes got their big break when John Peel heard their album De Stijl in the cult record shop Platenworm, then brought it home and rinsed it on the radio. Platenworm is sadly now closed (but trading on discogs), but plenty of other vinyl emporiums will be supporting ESNS bands as well as showcasing their impeccably-curated collections. Standout record shops include Plato, with its historic shop-front, Magic Buzz for psychedelia, punk and garage rock, De Jongens van Hemmes for all your electronic music needs and the rare collectors’ items at Headline. Just a few to get you started…

TICKETS AND REGISTRATIONS
Tickets for the festival and registrations for the ESNS conference are currently available via esns.nl. The deadline to register for the late rate is on December 7.

ESNSESNS (Eurosonic Noorderslag) is the key exchange for emerging European music talent, with a proven track record of helping to break new acts on the international music scene. With its first ever dual-country focus on the Czech Republic and Slovakia, ESNS stages more than 350 showcases alongside offering a full conference programme of around 150 panels and keynotes, alongside multiple networking opportunities and award ceremonies. The event attracts more than 4,000 conference delegates from all sections of the entertainment industry, including representatives of over 400 festivals.

With a name like the OFF Festival, we know we’ve got a high bar to clear. So we’re pleased to announce the first batch of artists heading our way next year. They’ll charm you, shock you and enthral you with their uncanny and unpopular music. Please welcome Daughters, The Gaslamp Killer, Perfect Son, Boogarins, Lebanon Hanover, and Bamba Pana & Makaveli.

Daughters

H.P. Lovecraft himself couldn’t have envisioned this monster in his most terrifying nightmares. Hailing from the author’s hometown of Providence, Rhode Island, Daughters emerged from the ashes of a grindcore band, and thought they’ve slackened their pace a bit, they haven’t given up their intense, incalculable way of playing music as if the world were about to end. The album You Won’t Get What You Want—already hailed as one of the most noteworthy releases of 2018—combines that passion with noise rock, industrial, post punk and metal. How does that blend fare on stage? Let’s just say there’s a reason why The Dillinger Escape Plan took Daughters along on their goodbye tour. The king is dead, long live the king?

The Gaslamp Killer
California’s William Bensussen launched his music career early, holding dance parties for family and friends when he was still a kid. He’s all grown up now, and throws parties that draw a worldwide audience. Bensussen is a producer who combines rock with underground hip hop, dousing it all in a psychedelic sauce or launching it into outer space. To find out what you can expect from The Gaslamp Killer, be sure to check out his debut LP Breakthrough or Gonjasufi’s A Sufi and a Killer, which he co-produced with Flying Lotus.

The Comet Is Coming
This comet is coming straight out of London. It might kill us, but only to bring us back to life. “The Comet Is Coming, signalling an end to life as we know it, heralding the dawn of a new age. In the inevitable physical destruction of the planet, a space is created where all notions of political, social and economic hierarchy will be at once obliterated and transcended,” reads the band’s manifesto. Sound familiar? This music is clearly influenced by Sun Ra, as The Comet Is Coming’s frontman and sax player Shabaka Hutchings (who also heads of Sons of Kemet and Shabaka and the Ancestors) proudly admits. Hutchings has actually collaborated with Sun Ra Arkestra, but he’s devised a new motor for cosmic jazz, and, with the help of his pals, the electro-funk duo Soccer96, he’s sending it into ever distant reaches of the galaxy.

Perfect Son
We’re always thrilled to welcome new and intriguing musical projects from Poland, and often feature artists from our friends at Sub Pop in Seattle, but we’ve never had the opportunity to combine both aspects—until now. Tobiasz Biliński, who performs under the moniker Perfect Son, is the first Pole to join the ranks of this legendary label, and though he first caught their attention as Coldair, he recorded his upcoming record, Cast (due in February) under a new name and with a new sound. His latest incarnation is just as good, but more distinctive, massive, and catchy. Congratulations to our friends at Sub Pop on making an excellent choice!

Boogarins
In 2018 Boogarins released an excellent live album titled Desvio Onírico, which couldn’t have had a better title: the band’s music truly combines dreams and flights. They start with psychedelic rock rooted in the Tropicalismo era and give it an original, modern twist. Things like this only happen in Brazil. But they’ve earned a following all over the world, touring with tUnE-yArDs, recording a session with KEXP, and performing at Coachella. There’s hardly a better setting for this sort of music than a warm summer night, so get ready: Boogarins’ show just might be one of the most intense experiences at next year’s OFF Festival.

Lebanon Hanover
Larissa Iceglass and William Maybelline make music that’s cold and raw, and yet endlessly romantic. It’s rooted in the post-punk and goth aesthetics of the 1980s, with nods to Joy Division, Krafwerk, and Siouxsie and the Banshees, but soaked in the absinthe and opium of turn-of-the-century artists. The duo released their latest album in March 2018: titled Let Them Be Alien, the LP is sad, dark, riveting and refreshingly different from everything else delivered by the main trends in European alternative music.

Bamba Pana & Makaveli
In the search for new sensations, the world of Western music has long been eating its own tail. Luckily, sources of fresh sounds still flow beyond the borders of Europe and North America. One noteworthy label is the recently established Ugandan outfit Nyege Nyege Tapes, which offers a portal into the crazy underground world of east Africa. One of the scene’s crown jewels is the producer duo Bamba Pana, virtuosos of the ultrafast genre known as singeli, the party soundtrack of Tanzanian capital Dar es Salaam. These beats make footwork sound like music for hopeless romantics. Bamba Pana will be accompanied by the rapper Makaveli.

As we announced earlier, the OFF Festival Katowice 2019 will take place August 2–4 at its usual location, Three Pond Valley. Three-day passes are now available at the OFF Shop for 290 PLN. This price lasts until 24 February or until the first batch of tickets is sold out! Campground tickets are also available for 80 PLN.

About OFFA truly unique boutique music festival, OFF Festival takes place in ‘Three Lake Valley’, Katowice – a beautiful green oasis in the heart of industrial Silesia. OFF Festival is a way of life, one that flies in the face of current trends and stays true to itself, and the ethos of organiser Artur Rojek is firmly aimed at supporting art and music with the festival bringing many acts to Poland for the first time. OFF Festival is growing in prominence year on year driven by the festivals forward–thinking, eclectic music policy. From the greatest alternative music stars from around the world to the increasingly strong Polish scene, OFF festival has inspiring music in abundance.

As well as all the amazing new artists performing at ESNS the conference program also includes many of the major players in the Live Music Industry.

Agent Tom Windish has been confirmed as keynote speaker during ESNS 2019. The US based founder of The Windish Agency and now senior executive at Paradigm Talent Agency, saw his agency grow from two to eighty employees before Paradigm acquired the independent agency in 2015. In Tom’s philosophy being an agent involves booking of course, but also involves a really important role in developing artists. He is known for developing the touring careers of such artists as Lorde, alt-J, The xx, Hot Chip and Billie Eilish. Working with these musicians from the early days of their careers, Windish has seen clients grow from playing small local venues to dominating stages at major festivals like Coachella, Lollapalooza and Electric Daisy Carnival. Many have earned Grammy nominations and wins.

Panels will cover topics a diverse range of topics including The Agents Panel – The Big Four with Clementine Bunel (Coda Agency, GB) Jules de Lattre (United Talent Agency, GB), Ben Coles (CAA) and Carlos Abreu (WME, GB). The four well known UK based agents from US owned Agencies talk about the present exciting and variable state of their business, The Festival Panel – Big, Bold and Beautiful, with a series of video presentations, and insight into their programming and philosophy, featuring Michal Kascak (Pohoda Festival, SK), Mikolaj Ziolkowski (Open’er Festival, PL), Cindy Castillo (Mad Cool Festival, ES), Herman Schueremans (Rock Werchter, BE) and many more.

ESNS also celebrates its 20thanniversary partnership with the European Broadcast Union (EBU). Therefore the EBU will be more present than ever at ESNS. In addition to a BBC Keynote by Ben Chapman, Head of Digital for BBC Radio & Music, various EBU meetings and panels will take place at ESNS.

Movers and shakers also tell their personal stories and respond to questions you’ve always wanted to ask, over a relaxing bottle of beer or two in the Beercrate Sessions, with Adam Ryan on behalf The Great Escape (GB),Julia Gudzent from Melt Festival & Lolapalooza Berlin (DE) and Login Kochishki – Password Production (MK).

ESNS Tech

ESNS Tech brings some of the world’s most exciting music tech companies together, with contributions from artists, managers, marketers, investors, and many more at the intersection of the music business and tech. More news soon, check our website for updates.

Scott Cohen the founder of The Orchard, the worlds first digital music distribution company will present a keynote on the future of digital and what’s next after streaming.

Richard Jones manager Pixies & Agnes Obel, will also give a keynote on the importance of ‘direct to fan’ and digital sales management. Richard has worked in the music business for over 30 years as an artist, tour manager and artist manager. Starting as a musician, Richard recorded and toured with various bands before moving on to Polygram Records. Richard then went on to manage worldwide tours from the likes of The Spice Girls, The Beautiful South, Björk, PJ Harvey and many more. Richard currently runs the worldwide artist management company Key Music Management representing various clients including the Pixies, Agnes Obel, Dead Can Dance, Teenage Fanclub, The Fratellis, Mew, Jane Weaver, 808 State and The Slow Show.

EPIC

European Production & Innovation Conference (EPIC) will also take place during ESNS, with festival analytics being one of the hot topics during the sixth edition. All issues associated with restrictions as far as privacy ruling and laws are concerned as well as accessibility of festivals and events and the great need for recruitment within the sector will be discussed. EPIC is entirely dedicated to production and innovation at festivals and venues and offers the latest technological developments in areas such as ticketing, logistics, communication and mobility. You will receive advice on the state of affairs regarding health, safety and sustainability. You can meet the most experienced international production managers, suppliers, trade associations, event technicians, start-ups, venues and festivals, who share insights, developments and novelties about the present and the future.

Don’t forget to register!If you do not want to miss out on all the action, don’t forget to register! Registrations go up with €45,- on December 7th, so register now and save.

About ESNS
ESNS (Eurosonic Noorderslag) is the key exchange for emerging European music talent, with a proven track record of helping to break new acts on the international music scene. With its first ever dual-country focus on the Czech Republic and Slovakia, ESNS stages more than 350 showcases alongside offering a full conference programme of around 150 panels and keynotes, alongside multiple networking opportunities and award ceremonies. The event attracts more than 4,000 conference delegates from all sections of the entertainment industry, including representatives of over 400 festivals.

The festival, with showcases by around 350 acts from Europe, takes place in the city of Groningen, the Netherlands, from January 16 – 19, 2019.

TICKETS AND REGISTRATIONS
Tickets for the festival and registrations for the ESNS conference are currently available via esns.nl. The deadline to register for the late rate is on December 7.

ESNSESNS (Eurosonic Noorderslag) is the key exchange for emerging European music talent, with a proven track record of helping to break new acts on the international music scene. With its first ever, dual-country focus on the Czech Republic and Slovakia, ESNS stages more than 350 showcases alongside offering a full conference programme of around 150 panels and keynotes, alongside multiple networking opportunities and award ceremonies. The event attracts more than 4,000 conference delegates from all sections of the entertainment industry, including representatives of over 400 festivals.

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